Despite advances in early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, it remains a leading cause of cancer death in women. Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine are making important progress identifying pathways that help determine the severity of a patient’s breast cancer, new ways it can be controlled, and whether it recurs or spreads to other organs. These discoveries are critical because they will identify targets for breast cancer treatment and lead to the design of ever more effective therapies. These adjuvant treatments, added on to traditional surgery and radiation, significantly decrease the risk of the cancer recurring and so improve patients’ survival.
Dr. Joyce M. Slingerland, director of the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at Sylvester, is leading a major study looking at the increased risk of developing breast cancer and the greater likelihood of metastasis (or more aggressive behavior of the disease) in obese patients. Dr. Slingerland’s team has found that as breast cancers invade breast fat, their contact with fat cells increases production of proteins that drive inflammation, and stimulate growth of very aggressive cancer cells, called stem cells, which resist treatment and can initiate the cancer’s spread to other organs. The team is discovering pathways that might be effective targets for treatment to reduce obesity-related inflammation, and they are launching new research to find out if diet and exercise programs during or after adjuvant therapy can help reduce the probability of metastasis and improve survival.
In another groundbreaking trial that is blocking metastasis in models of human cancer, Drs. Marc Lippman and Barry Hudson of Sylvester have identified a pathway which when activated causes inflammation and makes breast cancer much worse. The pathway is called RAGE, which stands for receptor for advanced glycation end-products. When certain proteins bind to RAGE, they cause inflammation that supports metastatic breast cancer. Drugs are working against this target in early investigations, and the next step will be clinical trials to show that they work against breast cancer in humans.
Hundreds of investigators at centers around the world are working together to maximize the effectiveness of treatments for all breast cancer patients. The future promises exciting advancements in overcoming this often-aggressive disease.
